Pebble Labyrinth

I made this labyrinth in our barn out of pebbles from the gravel in our yard. I made it for the winter solstice 2007 - and my partner & I walked it each day.  It is 6 years now since we bought our home here in West Wales,  but that winter was the 1st one since we moved here lock stock & barrel & sold our flat in London, where he had still been working during the period of renovating this place. 

I made the labyrinth in a sacred manner with the intention of walking it as a meditation or ceremony,  but I didn't know how it was going to support & feed us through the shortest days of our 1st winter living here together..

We walked it every day from the solstice until after new year - without having planned that, it just grew that way.  It was a very gentle ceremony, one of us would play music, or sing, or make a rhythm as a focus of support while the other walked, & stayed in there as long as they needed to.  It wasn't something we talked about at great length either,  but it held  & fed us  through the quiet winter holiday days that year. 

It is a beautiful thing to walk a labyrinth - there are many different shaped ones from different cultures,  and what they have in common is one route in to the centre & back out again - as opposed to a maze which is a puzzle presenting you with choices.  They are ancient symbols , open to different interpretations, & for me  an experience of gentle clarity & focus..

After that I sewed a labyrinth on a big cloth , which I have used as a ceremony with small groups of people here since ;  and now I am planning an outdoor one,  here on our land, which will have the space to be much bigger.  It is calling me..  but it wont happen until after our neighbour has cut the field for hay..  & that in turn depends on the weather. 

When the time is right no doubt it will feed us and those who walk it, and above all the land itself in unforseen ways.. 

one step at a time

Looking through some photos of my work for my next post I found  this monoprint which I haven't looked at for a while.  Yes those are prints of my hands & feet imposed on the drawing, so you can imagine the scale.  As is the way with these things I came upon this when I need to hear its message again..  

When I made it I was  following intuition in a fast series of drawings as I have described before,  &  it came with a strong physical knowing of what it  feels like to be rooted like a tree..

I have been enjoying time with friends during the gap since my last post which is lovely,  but there's always that other pull  " but you haven't been in the studio.." & then  - which seems downright perverse - its hard to get back down to work.  What's the lesson ??  One step at a time.